Origin

In a criminal courtroom dock is the official term for the enclosure where a defendant stands or sits. It was not always so orderly: originally a dock was crammed full of the thieves and petty criminals whose trial was scheduled for the day. The word may well be identical with Flemish dok ‘chicken coop, rabbit hutch’, and first appears in the late 16th century. The Late Middle English dock meaning ‘area of water for the loading, unloading, or repair of ships’ has a parallel in Dutch dok and early German forms, but its earlier history is lost. The plant dock, effective against nettle stings, is the oldest of the group, being recorded in Old English.

Origin

Late Middle English: perhaps related to Frisiandok 'bunch, ball (of string etc.)' and GermanDocke 'doll'. The original noun sense was 'the solid part of an animal's tail', whence the verb sense 'cut short an animal's tail', later generalized to 'reduce, deduct'.

In a criminal courtroom dock is the official term for the enclosure where a defendant stands or sits. It was not always so orderly: originally a dock was crammed full of the thieves and petty criminals whose trial was scheduled for the day. The word may well be identical with Flemish dok ‘chicken coop, rabbit hutch’, and first appears in the late 16th century. The Late Middle English dock meaning ‘area of water for the loading, unloading, or repair of ships’ has a parallel in Dutch dok and early German forms, but its earlier history is lost. The plant dock, effective against nettle stings, is the oldest of the group, being recorded in Old English.

Origin

In a criminal courtroom dock is the official term for the enclosure where a defendant stands or sits. It was not always so orderly: originally a dock was crammed full of the thieves and petty criminals whose trial was scheduled for the day. The word may well be identical with Flemish dok ‘chicken coop, rabbit hutch’, and first appears in the late 16th century. The Late Middle English dock meaning ‘area of water for the loading, unloading, or repair of ships’ has a parallel in Dutch dok and early German forms, but its earlier history is lost. The plant dock, effective against nettle stings, is the oldest of the group, being recorded in Old English.

Origin

In a criminal courtroom dock is the official term for the enclosure where a defendant stands or sits. It was not always so orderly: originally a dock was crammed full of the thieves and petty criminals whose trial was scheduled for the day. The word may well be identical with Flemish dok ‘chicken coop, rabbit hutch’, and first appears in the late 16th century. The Late Middle English dock meaning ‘area of water for the loading, unloading, or repair of ships’ has a parallel in Dutch dok and early German forms, but its earlier history is lost. The plant dock, effective against nettle stings, is the oldest of the group, being recorded in Old English.